The Ties that Bind his Heart
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: set after the dark tournament- Kurama's mother has found love again and this means a new chapter in the fox demon's life that will involve new bonds, new family and a whole mess of trouble. Can he settle into a new life as a human when his demon side mucks things up with his step sister? Yeah, i'm going there. Kurama/OC. my first hakusho fic so please R&R
1. Chapter 1

The first time he saw her- he was hardly looking to find himself a woman. Much less a relationship with one that went beyond the normal and didn't end after a few one night stands. But then generally, he wasn't a one night stand kind of person. He simply couldn't risk accidentally mating himself to someone, not with his demon half. Or at least he shouldn't have had too with his human half in almost full control. But that was niether here nor there.

He was trying to think of how he first met her- oh yes, now he remembered.

It had been during his excursion to demon world with Yusuke and the others to participate in the dark tournament. Sometime before the final matches he had had the insane urge to call his human mother, being as it may be the last and only time he could speak with her and tell her just how much he loved and appreciated her when she had dropped a little bit of a bomb on him.

She was going to get remarried to a nice man who owned his own software company, but that wasn't the most startling news. In fact, Shuichi had found that rather nice. The most startling news was that on top of gaining a father figure, he would also gain a sibling. A sister just barely a year younger than himself to be exact.

After which she had sent him a text of a picture of his new sibling.

The image was of a young girl with fair skin, long mid back length hair almost as red as his own liberally laced with traces of blonde and pink tints to it, a heart shaped face, pale sparkling green eyes, a petite build akin to Botan's and she was wearing a pretty looking off mint colored long sleeved striped shirt and a pair of torn jeans. According to the stuff his human mother told him, his soon to be sister's hobbies were flower arranging, clothing and jewelry design, and making perfumes and lotions and herbal teas when she wasn't gardening or reading or sleeping.

All and all, for a human- Shuichi thought she sounded quite like she looked- rather lovely. And Yoko had to agree with his human half. The young girl _was_ something special.

Especially if she was to be his younger sibling.

Shortly after that, the dark tournament ended with team Yurameshi the winners, and he and his friends- bruised, battered- yet alive, had returned to the human world for some much needed down time to rest and heal. And it was during this time, that his mother managed to call him at Genkai's. Surprising and both scaring the hell out of him all at once when she invited him to have dinner with her and his 'newest' family members.

The dinner would take place at his favorite restaurant. A nice, cozy place that served many traditional dishes that were absolutely wonderful. Plus the sushi was to die for. Shuichi thought fondly as his mother gave him the details of the upcoming dinner.

It was in three days, which was fine with him considering the fact that he had already healed up nicely.

What irked him slightly was the fact that it was a semi formal dinner. He hated dressing up in suits, they always made him feel like a monkey or something. But since he knew it was for his mother- and he had never been the type to deny her anything- then he quickly agreed to greet her and his new 'family' members at the restaurant in three days with a proper suit...and yes, somewhat begrudgingly he even agreed wear to a tie.

Once he was done speaking with his mom, Shuichi hung up his cell and tossed it onto his bed and then sank down onto the matress beside it with a tired sigh. Good grief, he almost missed the dark tournament now that he knew what lay ahead of him.

Because he rarely made favorable first impressions with normal people due to his odd appearance (nearly waist length red hair, emerald green eyes) and his overly intellegent personality. Which seemed to put people off or make them want to try bullying him. And god knew that never ended well. Not with his vicious second nature.

Whether it was verbal or physical, Shuichi could lay into anyone and do it all with that damned mockingly angelic smile he always sported. After all, what was it to him if he ripped a few bastards to pieces? It had always been his policy, even as a human, that if someone pushed him- he shoved them back. And preferrably knocked them on their ass.

But that was niether here nor there. Especially since his primary concern at the moment was figuring out a way to keep from embarrassing his mother and thinking up ideas for conversation with his new soon to be sibling. Which after several minutes...proved to be a bit much for him. Honestly what did a teenage male talk about with young girls?

Music and movies seemed like a safe bet since everything else may make the girl seem like an airhead. And that would be bad since he couldn't stand speaking to airheads. They annoyed him with their lack of depth and intellegence. Luckily he'd have at least two days to figure out adequate dinner conversation with his new family. Until then he'd take a day to relax, a day to go to his flat and fetch his suit- No scratch that. Being as Hiei hadn't suffered as much wounds as the rest of the group, he'd blackmail him into going to his flat and fetching his suit for him.

Then all he would have to do is relax for a bit and deal with the fire demon's wrath.


	2. Chapter 2

The day of the dinner-

Shuichi stood before the bathroom mirror, fresh from the shower. A towel wrapped around his waist as he regarded his reflection with calculating eyes, wondering if perhaps he should try to change his appearance a bit. Casting a distasteful look at the black hair dye he'd picked up at the convience store around the corner from his home- he felt his lips curl back from his teeth in a silent snarl.

_I haven't even met them and I'm already hating them_, He thought as he picked up the jet black dye and took a moment to stare at the package before promptly tossing it in the trash bin and then returning his attention to his reflection and narrowing his eyes just a little bit. Maybe instead of dying his shockingly red hair he should just trim it to a more respectible length instead?

Reaching up he grasped a length of bangs between his thumb and index fingers and tugged on it slightly and then released it and watched as it sort of went back to it's original fluffiness. _Wow, that's kind of annoying. I wonder why I never noticed that before?_ He thought as he reached for his comb and with a sigh began to run it through his damp hair starting at the tips and working his way up. Then once done set the comb aside and pulled one of the sink drawers open so that he could fish out the scissors that he had bought a while back to keep his hair from growing out of control on him.

After all the last thing he wanted to do was look more like Yoko. Although there was something to be said for the 'wild man' charm.

Setting the scissors on the bathroom counter, he then turned back to his reflection and took a moment or two to debate with himself on just how short he planned to cut his hair. Turns out he was more fond of the long haired wild man look than he had first thought since barely ten minutes later, he was walking out of his bathroom with less than an inch of hair missing from both his back and his bangs.

Padding down the long hallway to his bedroom, he ran his fingers through his mostly dry hair sub conciously as he looked around his home and felt a peculiar pang of emptiness squeeze at his heart.

Damn.

That was happening more and more of late. And he wasn't totally sure why. After all between going to University and working for the Spirit World, it wasn't like he spent enough time alone to actually feel lonely. So maybe it was something else... Something that he just couldn't put his finger on.

Stepping into his bedroom doorway, he paused for a moment to look around the interior. Blue walls with gold leaf trim, gold curtains- one wouldn't think that he had such a fondness for the color blue, but it reminded him of a specific area in Demon World that he had always found breathtaking- there was a dresser, three shelves, a chair over in the corner. And of course his large, hand carved king sized bed from his days as Yoko. He'd made a deal a while back with Koenma to have the piece brought to him in the human world.

Mainly because it was the most beautiful piece of work he had ever labored over and parting with it possibly would have caused him to resort to violence of some kind. But the beauty of the piece was only an excuse, the truth of things, and this was not something that he would ever admit too aloud- was that he had laid his hopes and dreams on that bed.

Hopes for his future. Of someday meeting a suitable female demoness and marrying and having young.

To be honest, before he had gotten so badly wounded in his last heist- it had been almost all Yoko could think about. Getting out of the theivery business and settling down. But then things had been so terribly mucked up. He had wound up in human world as a human/demon hybrid. And his dream of a possible mate and young had all but perished.

As he was now as Shuichi Minimoto, he would never marry. Nor would he ever have children.

He would live alone. Never knowing the tenderness and comfort of a loved one beyond his mother and soon to be sibling. He would live and spend the rest of his life...alone. Always.


	3. Chapter 3

River sat next to her dad and her future stepmother, her pale green eyes staring at the blank spot where her future older brother was supposed to be. He was late. River though somewhat huffily as her future mother kept craning her neck and looking at the door hopefully while River thought darkly. If Shuichi Minimoto _dared_ to make his mother cry, she was going to kick his ass.

"Oh my, I wonder why- Maybe I should try calling his cell and remind him..." Shiori Minimoto said in a somewhat distressed tone that made River grip her glass of water so tightly that she almost shattered it in her hand.

Reaching over, River's father, Misaki Raizen patted Shiori's hand lightly, trying to comfort her as he said. "I'm sure he's on his way Shi. He probably just got stuck in traffic."

"What traffic?" Shiori demanded as she turned her head to look at her betrothed. "He doesn't drive! He walks or runs everywhere!" She said almost hysterically, a thousand scenario's going through her mind when suddenly a bouqet of pink roses were thrust into her line of vision and she blinked as Razen gave her a slow smile that turned into a playful smirk as he said,

"See. There's a reason why he's late." Raizen said, nodding towards the flowers in the young mans hand.

"Either that or I have another bue." Shiori said as she tipped her head back to look at her son and saw him smiling before he dropped down a bit to kiss her on the cheek while Razen took the flowers from him on her behalf and gently laid them on the table so that he could stand up and shake Shuichi's hand.

"Hello there young man, you must be the infamous Shuichi." Raizen said in a friendly tone as he looked the young man over. Shuichi Minimoto was a strikingly beautiful young man. And not in a girly way- despite his nearly mid back length crimson colored hair and his exotic green eyes. The young man was many of the things that Shiori had told him.

Quiet, politely mannered, calculating- although there was a wildness he sensed about him that just seemed out of place in such an young man. "Well, I'm certainly glad to finally meet you. My name is Raizen Misaki," Raizen continued, trying not to feel intimidated by the younger man as he absently reached behind him and grabbed the girl that Shuichi had noticed while on his way over to the table, and wound up pulling her hair in his haste.

Causing _both_ Shuichi and Shiori to winch when the girl yelped rather loudly and smacked at her father's hand to get it away from her hair now that he had ruined what looked like a well thought out look for the girl. "And the yelper over here is my lovely daughter River. S-Say 'hi' to Shuichi dear." Raizen said somewhat nervously as his daughter growled at him like a rabid animal before sniping.

"Drop dead."

Shuichi hummed somewhat disgruntled at the rude growling and such going on a few feet down the table and glanced at his mother who already knew that he wanted to bolt from the restuarant and never look back. But after giving him her best set of teary 'kicked puppy eyes' Shuichi begrudgingly reminded himself that tonight was not about him. It was about getting to know his new family, and made his way over to the seat across from...River.

The amazing growling girl. Honestly River growled better than Hiei. God knew _he_ felt intimidated.

_Good grief_, He wondered.

_What kind of circus is mother marrying into? _He thought as Shiori cleared her throat to clear the tension from the air and asked, "So River, did I ever tell you that Shuichi loves flowers?" Observing the girl across from him for a moment, he noted tense shoulders under her black sleeveless velvet shirt as she worked on fixing her hair since it was now refusing to stay up like it had earlier.

The cute and flirty style that she had had before was all but gone, leaving the silken strands to fall around her neck and shoulders. Seemingly irritating her a little more even though she somehow managed to keep her reply civil. "No. I don't think you told me that."

Shiori grinned a little in triumph. River as it turned out was a fairly easy person to manage despite her personality flaws. She liked flowers, books, movies, (some foods) and a few other things and once a person brought one of those topics up whatever had the girl snapping and snarling seemed to leave her mind free for other prusuits.

Shuichi, quickly catching on to his mother's manipulations started to look at her when River suddenly caught his attention. It wasn't like she had done anything weird or wrong. It was merely a soft fluttering movement with one of her hands as she pushed her bangs away from her face as she said, "That's cool. At least we'll have something in common to bond over," Before shifting her attention to him and asking curiously. "So what kind of flowers do you like?"

"Roses mostly. But I do favor other flowers. What about you, River? What flowers do you favor?"

She looked away and absently used her index finger to circle the rim of her water glass as she muttered almost sullenly, "I'm not telling." Leaving it up to his mother to keep the conversation going.

"She likes peonies, cosmos, and all sorts of lilies."

"Ah, those all sound quite lovely- But," Shuichi said before teasingly asking. "No roses?"

It was Raizen who replied this time. "As sad as it is, I think the last time she had anything to do with roses was at her mother's funeral."

"Her biological mother is dead?" Shuichi asked in a shocked tone. Apparently he had just convinced himself at some point that Raizen was a divorcee. Not a widower.

"Yeah," River finally replied to one of his questions with a devious smirk. "Guess we shouldn't have gone on that rollercoaster. What with her heart problems and such." Causing Shuichi to blink and wonder if she was joking as her father and his mother both gave her horrified looks. Indicating that she wasn't in fact joking.


	4. Chapter 4

Appalled and uncertain on how to react to his new step sister's bizarre sense of humor, Shuichi sat there for several moments merely gaping at her as he tried to come up with something to say as Raizen reached out and very lightly tugged on a strand of River's hair and muttered softly, "Too soon love."

Causing the girl to look down at her plate and sigh before excusing herself and quietly leaving the table. Leaving Shuichi and his mother and soon-to-be step father to speak alone.

"You'll have to forgive her Shuichi. Despite how she worded things, the event itself was actually traumatizing to her since she was both still somewhat young _and_ alone with her mother with it happened. Trying to make it out to be something to smile about is a sort of defense mechanism that she developed to help her cope. She's actually still very upset about it." Raizen said gently, not wanting him to think badly of his step sister.

Nodding his head in understanding, Shuichi began to look over his menu a little bit as he waited for his sister to return to the table so that he could try speaking with her again.

He felt that he had a much better understanding of her personality now that he had finally been forewarned. And as such he was still somewhat eager to get to know the young lady.

By the time she returned to the table almost fifteen minutes later, he and his mother and step father had all placed their food orders.

Sliding into her seat, River looked a great deal more composed than she had when she had excused herself from the table. Something Shuichi wasn't sure if he was thankful for or something else altogether.

"Sorry, I needed a few." She said in a similar manner to Yusuke when he was apologizing for something. The movements and facial expressions were...strangely awkward. Looking almost as if they were rehearsed.

And yet he couldn't find it in himself to call her out on it.

"Sorry for...upsetting you Shuichi." River said with a slight wince, almost as if the words hurt to say or something as he gave her a kind smile and told her to forget it. She was probably just suffering a bad case of nerves.

She absently agreed with him as she looked over her menu until she found what she wanted to eat and motioned a waiter over to take her order. Listening intently to everything she said as she placed her order just in case he needed the info for future reference, he was mildly surprised to know that she had ordered the same thing as him.

The delux seafood platter with soup and a salad. Although her food had some slight tweaks to it.

For starters, his was the delux seafood and sushi platter. With miso soup and a salad.

Whereas River's preferred food was simply a delux seafood platter with shrimp, clams, stuffed crab shells, mussels, oysters, scallops and baked salmon. And her soup was a lightly flavored vegetable with some tofu.

She had also ordered some dipping sauces for the seafood along with some pickled ginger.

Something that he almost never did unless he was suffering from a vitamin deficiency or something. Still, her choices were somewhat interesting. Partially because he didn't know of any females human or otherwise who could manage to eat everything that she had ordered.

So to say he was curious about whether or not she would _actually_ be able to eat everything was a little bit of an understatement.

However once everyone's food came and they all began eating, he would pause periodically to cast River a quick glance and was more than a little shocked to find that all of her food was more than a quarter ways gone.

Catching his eyes for a moment with her own, she frowned at him for a second before looking down at her food and seemingly realized what had him so perplexed and swallowed what she had been chewing before asking, "What?" In a slightly defensive tone jostling him from his thoughts long enough to shake his head slowly and respond with a light- if not somewhat wary sounding,

"Nothing."

Before Raizen caught his attention by asking River how long it had been since she had last eaten anything. Apparently it was a normal occurrence for the girl to go days and days without sustenance of any kind.

Which in itself was just a tad bit alarming considering just how frail human bodies were. Not only that but Shuichi's mother would be marrying River's father in the not too distant future and the last thing he wanted was for his mother to call him in hysterics because the girl had starved herself to death or something.

She_ was_ going to be his sister after all. And despite his deceptive appearance, he was a fox demon above all else.

And demons by nature were territorial, greedy things. He was no different. Which meant that he would be spending more and more time with his sibling than he had originally anticipated just to make sure that she stayed healthy and whole.

After that, things sort of got back on track. Dinner was less tense now that he had a better understanding of both Raizen and River. And before long the two were telling he and his mother stories that had them both smiling and laughing and after several hours of talking he learned that aside from her already listed hobbies, River also went to school and worked part time for her father's company as a secretary/receptionist.

She had moved out on her own and lived about half a block from Shuichi's home in her very own two story, four bedroom, three bathroom house that came complete with a fenced in yard and a nice garden too.

All in all Shuichi was rather impressed that she had achieved so much at such a young age.

Finally dinner ended, and he bid his mother goodbye and then his step father and when he looked around for River- found her curiously missing until her father had told him that she was probably waiting for him outside so that she could walk him home.


End file.
